Film Review: BY DESIGN: Amanda Kramer’s Obscure Comedy Takes a Wild Premise and Plays With It to the Max [Sundance 2025]

By Design Review

By Design (2025) Film Review from the 48th Annual Sundance Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Amanda Kramer and starring Juliette Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Samantha Mathis, Robin Tunney, Alisa Torres, Clifton Collins Jr., Keir Gilchrist, Madison McKinley, Miranda Bailey, Cristo Montt, Bridey Elliott, Betty Buckley, Jessie-Ann Kohlman, Sophie von Haselberg, Ruby Cruz, Michelle Farrah Huang and Cricket Arrison.

One can understand why the offbeat and brilliant Juliette Lewis was chosen for the principal role in filmmaker Andrea Kramer’s bizarre but endearing offbeat movie, By Design. Lewis has always played eccentric to the max and, this time out, she shines as Camille, a woman who takes a liking to a chair and decides she has to buy it. When the chair is sold during a brief time that she’s away from it, Camille’s heart breaks and well…eventually, she becomes the said chair. Her spirit occupies the inanimate object while Camille’s body is left hanging by the wayside, so to speak. This is a bold movie that will inspire walkouts by some people while provoking utter fascination from more artsy and open-minded moviegoers.

There are many assets to By Design that should be pointed out. Let’s start with the supporting cast. Robin Tunney and Samantha Mathis as Camille’s human besties, Irene and Lisa, are perfectly cast, adding the requisite distinct personalities to their everyday female characters. It is Mamoudou Athie, however, who steals the movie from Lewis at times and rightfully so. He plays Olivier, a piano player, who gets to be very close to the chair that Camille’s spirit is occupying. This picture is exquisitely narrated by Melanie Griffith who brings much to the table through voicing the picture’s unique story details. Betty Buckley also shines as Camille’s mom who communicates with her daughter’s body as it lays motionless since it is lacking its soul.

Alisa Torres as Marta, the one who buys Olivier the char, proves to be quite memorable, too. This movie’s problem is certainly not the casting. Even Madison McKinley as the chair’s sales clerk is fine. This film doesn’t have a straightforward story line that can be understood without frustration. It’s easy to comprehend that a piano player like Olivier needs to be comfortable doing what he does and the new chair brings his passions into view but the scenes with Camille’s body just “hanging out” without her soul are clumsy and awkward, most likely as Kramer intended them to be.

By Design is charting new cinematic territory, though. It takes huge risks by presenting quirky characterizations and offbeat situations. Juliette Lewis does what she’s asked to do exceptionally well. It’s just that the character she plays feels lost in the world. Her interactions with those around her seem secondary to her need to be at peace with herself and the world around her. Being a chair sort of allows for that.

Maybe this movie suggests that being alive in the human form is a bit overrated. Happiness comes from within more than from going through life’s daily endeavors. Camille finds satisfaction by straying from the norm and existing in something other than the physical body. The bond between Camille in her newfound state and Olivier is portrayed interestingly and is not completely without complex emotions. On the contrary. There’s a huge dynamic when considering Olivier and Camille’s connection, however unusual it may indeed be.

True beauty, harmony and perfection are not always attainable as the movie points out in its later plot developments. Driven more by music and images rather than by dialogue, By Design is interesting but also meandering. It may not know what it wants to say all the time. It gets lost trying to fill 90-minutes of screen time when it could have been better as a shorter movie. Its premise lends itself to a much slighter variation on the themes the movie takes on.

With that being said, the film is technically proficient as well. This film’s use of costumes and colors is top notch. We understand Camille’s need to be understood and her desire for true meaning in life. While the picture paints Mathis’s and Tunney’s characters as occasionally one-dimensional, the actresses bring more to the roles than was expected. This is Athie’s movie, though, and he’s welcome to it. Though Lewis’s character is at the center of the movie, Athie gets to have more freedom of expression through his physical performance. Lewis’s work is admirable but there’s something ultimately too bizarre about how the movie handles the situation it immerses the viewer in.

With By Design, one gets the ultimate unconventional movie-going experience. I admire the film’s existence and the efforts by Kramer to bring important and relevant themes into view. This movie did need more distinct details surrounding the life of Camille which would make us understand why she so desperately wanted to escape her life and become a chair. We sense her friends are selfish but more relevant examples could have helped. Camille was suffering from being dissatisfied in life but her outcome does seem a tad absurd in some respects.

Still, By Design is a sharp looking movie. It takes its premise and runs with it all the way. One has to admire Kramer’s vision because it’s one of the more daring ones I’ve seen in recent years. This is the type of movie one should probably see twice. Once to take it all in and another time to piece together the imagery and characterizations. It’s an interesting film.

Rating: 7/10

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